1889 Ewer Map of Nantucket, Massachusetts

Title

Description

This attractive map is a reduced version of Reverend F. C. Ewers important map of Nantucket. This variant was issued by the Old Colony Rail line in various formats from roughly 1869 to 1889. Covers the island of Nantucket in superb detail focusing on transportation and communities. Advertises the 'Old Colony Line' as the 'shortest, Quickest, Best, and Only Direct Route between Boston or New York and Nantucket & Martha's Vineyard.' Also notes Native American claims to the Island. Features three columns of text breaking down the history of Nantucket from its discovery by Bartholomew Gosnold in 1602 to the laying of the first communications cables between Nantucket and the mainland in 1886.

This map was prepared and published by the 'Inquirer and Mirror Steam Press' of Nantucket for inclusion in their appealing 1880 pocket guide to the island entitled Nantucket in a Nutshell. The guide, which is includes in this map consists of 36 pages detailing the history, inhabitants, government, religion and trade of the island. It also extols the virtues of Nantucket as a sanitarium, sporting ground, and holiday destination.

Cartographer

Ferdinand Cartwright Ewer (1826 - 1883) was born on May 22nd of 1926 in town of Nantucket on the Massachusetts island of the same name. Ewer's father, a prominent Nantucket businessman, moved his family to Providence Rhode Island when Ferdinand was three and then, further afield, to New York City. It was not until his 13th year that Ewer returned to Nantucket where he would remain until 1844 when was matriculated at Harvard. There he grew intellectually and strayed from his religiously ideological upbringing, embracing atheism. Shortly following his graduation in 1848, Ewer, like many others, was drawn westward by the lure of the California Gold Rush. "I have no gold fever," he says pathetically in his diary, "I only desire not to starve." In San Francisco he worked as a clerk in the claims office and later as newspaper reporter with The Alta Californian. In a tale typical of the Wild West , a bar room conversation in a mining town inspired Ewer to change his life, abandon his atheism, and became a Reverend of the Episcopal Church. As Reverend, Ewer generated a popular following in San Francisco. Nonetheless, in time he decided to move back to the east coast and, eventually, became the rector of New York City's Christ's Church. A highly educated man, Ferdinand devoted much of his intellectual energy in reconciling the positions of science with those of religion. To the chagrin of his Episcopalian superiors, Ewer believed that the premises of Darwinism, astronomy, and medicine were in fact compatible his faith. Eventually, Ewer's scientific leanings drove him from the Christ Church, at which point he established the New York church of St. Ignatius of Antioch, where he remained to his death in 1883. It was sometime during his tenure in New York that Ewer composed his famous map of Nantucket.

Source

Nantucket in a Nutshell, 1889.

Condition

Good condition. Both old and new verso repairs and reinforcement. Minor buckling. On thing paper. Could benefit from professional flattening.

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